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A United Airlines capsule from the late 1950s will be opened in February and likely holds items once used by the airline.

Berkeley will launch its time capsule next year. Anyone in the city who wants to contribute items such as essays and poems is welcome to participate. The project will be completed in December.

Students from dozens of Bay Area schools have filled jars with personal mementos to provide a snapshot of their lives. The art exhibition is showcased at San Francisco's Main Library.

San Francisco City Hall will replace a 1913 time capsule found by chance four years ago with a new one.

With the start of the year 2000, thousands of people around the globe plan to leave gifts for future generations as well, part of a time capsule frenzy that has gained momentum in the past year, according to the International Time Capsule Society.

30,000 time capsules predicted

The group estimates there will be more than 30,000 time capsules worldwide this year. The majority of them are underground, although many nostalgia lovers keep them in safes, shelves, basements and attics.

The Atlanta-based International Time Capsule Society, established in 1990 at Oglethorpe University to promote the study of time capsules, keeps a time capsule created in 1940. It's known as the Crypt of Civilization and won't be opened until 8113, a date set by its creator and dictated by the Egyptian

calendar.

"America is going time capsule crazy," said Paul Hudson, co-founder of the International Time Capsule Society. "Families, cities, schools and many others are doing them because of the millennium. It's also a way to write yourself into

history."

Four years ago, during the renovation of San Francisco City Hall, construction crews stumbled upon a 12-by-21-inch copper box hidden within the granite wall facing Polk Street.

No one had any idea a time capsule had been entombed in the wall in 1913 to commemorate the birth of the municipal building.

Inside were treasures retelling The City's history from the building's construction when James Rolph was mayor.

"It's amazing," said Kerry Painter, building manager at City Hall. "It gives me chills to think people back then left something for us to see."

Coins, books, photos

The capsule's contents include minted gold and silver coins, a city directory, documents in English and Spanish, newspaper clippings, books and photos.

Some of the items are on display in the South Light Room at City Hall. Plans for a new time capsule are in the works.

Time capsules are most popular

in the United States and Canada. They have long been used to mark significant dates in history. In 1876, about 1,000 time capsules existed, mostly in honor of the first centennial. To commemorate the bicentennial in 1976, hundreds more were buried, bringing the total to more than 5,000 in this country, Hudson said.

Unfortunately for capsule seekers, the past proves that not all capsules survive. Some will be lost or destroyed, or moisture will ruin the contents. Others will be forgotten and found only by chance.

Members of the San Francisco Yacht Club, some of them engineers, mapped out the movement of the ground so that generations to come will be able to find the artifacts buried under the group's lawn in Marin County.

Confident the club will still be around in 100 years, the group will leave future members instructions and a map to the secret spot.

The idea of burying time capsules began with the New York World's Fair in 1939. The Westinghouse Co. coined the term when it buried a torpedo-shaped vessel.

United Airlines employees have been waiting for years to open a time capsule buried in 1958 at San Francisco International Airport.

The cylindrical, nearly 4-foot-tall capsule - which was on display near Gate 82 but is now showcased in the airline's employee cafeteria - is rumored to have onboard magazines, a flight attendant uniform, newspapers, and possibly part of an aircraft, according to employees who worked for the airline in the '50s and '60s.

The airline capsule used to be in the ground below a now demolished service kitchen where Terminal G is being constructed. Plans are still being made as to where the items will be displayed once the capsule is opened in

February.

Dozens of calls

In recent weeks, the International Time Capsule Society received dozens of calls from people inquiring about how to open, bury, or organize them.

San Francisco City Hall officials called to find the protocol for planning a cornerstone time capsule to replace the old one. Ultimately, there aren't any rules - just have fun and be creative, Hudson said.

Dozens of companies hoping to capitalize on the time capsule craze are pitching their products on the Internet.

John Dunham of Reno hopes his LegaSea invention will draw people to purchase his underwater time capsule.

For $3,000 to $5,000, people can preserve almost anything in a glass sphere which is dumped as deep as 36,000 feet into the ocean, keeping the contents safe in air-tight conditions.

With the precision of "metal corrosion science," the sphere can be timed to rise to the sea's surface in up to 500 years. So far, Dunham has sold more than half a dozen, even getting a plug at a LegaSea ceremony from former "Gilligan's Island" star Bob Denver.

"It's basically a message in a bottle," said Dunham, an aerospace industry consultant. "This way, time capsules have less of a likelihood of getting lost or vandalized."

International Time Capsule Society members don't discourage people from burying their time capsules, but advocate keeping them in cool, dry places which may help them last longer.

Famous capsules lost

Many famous time capsules have been lost and the society has established a most wanted list of nine time capsules on its Web site at www.oglethorpe.edu/itcs/.

Ranked No. 4 is the "M*A*S*H" time capsule buried by cast members of the long-run

ing TV show in a secret ceremony. It includes costumes and props from the show, but hasn't been found since its alleged burial in January 1983 in the 20th Century Fox parking lot in Los Angeles.

The area has gone through many transformations over the years and the capsule is believed to be under what is now a Marriott hotel.

Things turned out much better for a San Francisco time capsule buried in Washington Square in 1879. Dozens of people gathered to open it 100 years later on Sunday, April 22, 1979.

"The time capsule is a good slice of what life would have been like at that time," said Pat Keats, director of the library for the California Historical Society where the findings are kept. "It makes people think that whatever they do will be remembered."

In 1879, Henry Cogswell, an eccentric dentist, buried a capsule at the foot of the Ben Franklin statue in Washington Square.

"Everybody had umbrellas and rain coats," recalls Ken Maley, one of the organizers of the time capsule-opening ceremony in 1979. "There were a lot of 'oohs and aahs' when the top came off."

The 18-inch lead box included books of poetry, a Harper's Weekly magazine from May 1872, and a copy of The Call, a newspaper dated June 2, 1879, with classified ads promoting a seven-room house for $25.

Students hope to be remembered

Students in the Bay Area hope to be remembered for a long time with an art exhibit conceived by former Bay Area resident Allyson Levy.

She drafted the artistic help of 2,000 students from 29 schools and 84 classrooms to fill jars with items from their lives. The result - "Millennium Monument - Time Encapsulated" - opened recently at The City's Main Library at 100

Larkin St.

"I would go to a classroom and tell the students to make their jars very meaningful," said Levy who is hoping somebody will buy the exhibit to help fund art programs for students in the Bay Area. The jars will also be traveling around the country to various children's museums.

"There's something about the Bay Area that unifies everybody," Levy said. "The new millennium is a good way to show that union." &lt;